As I have been on this journey of exploring all the different ways in which technology can support learning I have been reflecting on why this subject is so important to me. Is it just my passion for technology which is driving me or do I genuinely believe that Technology can enhance the learning experience. Well if I am truthful, it is a bit of both. Yes I am passionate about Technology, the Internet and Web 2.0, but I am also passionate about teaching and learning. Over the years I have seen how my learning and the learning experience have been improved by the use of these tools. Education and Learning is too important and exciting to minimize the experience. We should use all the tools available to help us on this journey.
Over the last few days I have been following Steve Wheeler's Blog and his tweets from the OER conference in Namibia. You can read his summary of the conference at
http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2010/05/open-all-oers.html
This has been both extremely interesting and has demonstrated to me another way in which Web 2.0 can be used in Education. Although I have to admit I have spent a lot of time on twitter during this time. This has led to me thinking of innovative ways of using twitter in my lessons. One way could be allowing students to ask questions via twitter, and posting answers as well as developing them in the classroom. Students love mobile phones so why not put them to good use letting them access Twitter. It is much quicker and easier than spending inordinate amounts of time arguing about phones being switched off. Using technology appropriately,and blending it in to the learning experience is my goal. I am going to leave the blog here and think of other innovative ways of using technology in education and learning.
I think that you are right Wendy. We need to embrace the technology and the way that young people use it today.
ReplyDeleteTwitter in the lecture room could work well or you may find it a challenge to get their attention back as they see and react to other tweets.
A Facebook page for your dept would work well too.
May be tweeting questions in between lectures and seeing how big a response you get would be good.
It is certainly a way to help people be concise!!!
Keep on sharing what you learn!!
Could you invite your colleagues from other unis to join your blog? It would be a great way to share learnings and save someone reinventing the wheel that you have so elegantly made!!!
ReplyDeleteGood points Bridget. I will invite colleagues form other Universities and indeed my own Universities to join in. It would be interesting to see what their response would be. If you or any of your colleagues have any more ideas it would be great to hear them
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